Flagler is a

Statutory Town In India, the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), also called municipalities, are self-government institutions responsible for the administration of cities, towns, and transitional areas within a state or Union Territory. The 74th amendment to the Const ...

in western Kit Carson County,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States. The town population was 567 at the 2020 United States census. Flagler is near Exit 395 on I-70.

History

The town was established in 1888 as a small settlement near the then-new

Rock Island Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

. The area has had several names, and prior to the settlement of the town, the location had been home to a combined general store and post office, owned by W.H. Lavington, and named Bowser in memory of the owner's favorite dog who had died.William Bright: ''Colorado Place Names'', page 64. Big Earth Publishing, 2004 When the town was founded, the town was named Malowe after Rock Island Railroad attorney M. A. Lowe. The town was later renamed after

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...

, railroad builder and oil man, at the request of his daughter who liked the area. The town was officially incorporated in 1916.

Geography

Flagler is located at (39.294031, -103.065832). At the 2020 United States census, the town had a total area of , all of it land.

Climate

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 612 people, 271 households, and 171 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 319 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 96.57%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.29% Native American, 0.33% from other races, and 0.82% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 3.10% of the population. There were 271 households, out of which 29.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 35.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.88. In the town, the population was spread out, with 25.8% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 23.4% from 45 to 64, and 21.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.1 males. The median income for a household in the town was $28,523, and the median income for a family was $43,542. Males had a median income of $29,821 versus $19,500 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $16,770. About 4.3% of families and 8.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 9.3% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

The economy of Flagler and the surrounding area is composed largely of agriculture, specifically

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

production. Flagler is also the self-proclaimed " Birdseed Capital of World," with a Wagner's Wild Bird Seed plant listed as the town's top private employer. Flagler is home to a Loaf 'N Jug convenience store, The Witt's Family (clothing and shoe) Store, Stone Communications (previously Lyle's TV & Radio), a small hotel, a small movie house, a local supermarket, The I-70 (1950's) Diner, and numerous churches. The Flagler area is also home to the Mullen pedal steel guitar factory on County Road MM, about 30 miles N.E. of the town. The Town of Flagler is offering free land for business or industry.

School

Arriba-Flagler Consolidated School District #20 educates local children in grades preschool through 12th, as well as children from nearby Arriba, Colorado. The school's mascot is the panther, and students compete in sports such as

Six-man football Six-man football is a variant of gridiron football played with six players per team, instead of the standard eleven. It is generally played by high schools in rural areas of the United States and Canada. History Six-man football was developed in ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, and track. Flagler's archrival is the Stratton Eagles, which Flagler beat to end what was, at the time, the longest winning streak in

high school football history. Flagler Senior High School is represented by the colors orange and black, and is consistently one of the top-performing schools in the state academicall

Notable events

Flagler is the site of a tragic air show accident that occurred on September 15, 1951. A Timm N2T Tutor performing for Fall Festival Day lost control and impacted the show's spectators, killing twenty people.Air-show crash a vivid memory 50 years later.
The accident aircraft was a Timm Tutor (N2T-1) not a T-6 as often mentioned. Denver Post Online. September 9, 2001. Retrieved on January 22, 2008.

Notable residents

*Boxer

Irish Bob Murphy Irish Bob Murphy (July 22, 1922 – August 17, 1961) was an Irish-American light heavyweight boxer who fought from 1945 to 1954. He was born Edwin Lee Conarty in Flagler, Colorado, but fought out of San Diego, California Californi ...

was born in Flagler *Author Hal Borland moved to Flagler at the age 15 when his father became publisher of one of the local newspapers, and attended high school in Flagler

References

External links

Town of Flagler website
{{authority control Towns in Kit Carson County, Colorado Towns in Colorado Populated places established in 1888 1888 establishments in Colorado